Kayla Young
When you think of facial hair, you usually think of a beard or a mustache, or maybe the peach fuzz on your cheeks you want to dermaplane off! But you’d rarely ever think of eyebrows and eyelashes as facial hair.
Are eyebrows considered facial hair?
A lot of people don’t think eyebrows should be considered facial hair. Others think that since it’s on your face, it should be facial hair.Â
Let’s go over the competing arguments and declare an answer.
Contents
What is Facial Hair?
Let’s go over the formal definition of facial hair. According to the Google definition, Facial hair is “a growth of hair on a man’s chin, cheeks, or upper lip.” This hair grows after puberty in men.
So by this definition, eyebrows should not be considered facial hair.
Are Eyebrows Considered Facial Hair?
The image that pops up in your mind when you think “facial hair” is not wrong. It probably looks a lot like this:
Eyebrows are not part of facial hair, even though they are hairs that grow on your face. They do not grow in the region that defines facial hair nor grow as a secondary sex characteristic.Â
Eyebrows are not part of facial hair, even though they are hairs that grow on your face. They do not grow in the region that defines facial hair nor grow as a secondary sex characteristic.Â
Eyebrows also stop growing after a certain length, unlike conventional facial hair like beards and sideburns.
Heck, you could even grow your beard as long as Dumbledore!
Why Do We Have Eyebrows?
Eyebrows and eyelashes aren’t just for aesthetic purposes like beards, mustaches, and sideburns. They serve a purpose. We all know how eyelashes protect our eyes from dust and other small, invasive, and potentially harmful particles, but we usually go about our lives knowing no purpose of our brows.
We spend a lot of time on them, though, perfecting that “on fleek” look with lamination, gels, and chemicals like vaseline.Â
So, why do we have eyebrows?
The most obvious function is that they protect our eyes.
The arched shape of your brow protects your eyes from liquids like sweat or rain. The hair of your brow absorbs some of it, while the shape diverts the rest. Your eyebrows also help block bright light and shield your eyes from dust, grime, and debris.Â
Eyebrows serve another very important function, more social than physical. They are vital in helping us express ourselves to others! You can tell what a person is feeling: sad, angry, happy, surprised, all with the help of their eyebrows.
You can tell what a person is feeling: sad, angry, happy, surprised, all with the help of their eyebrows.Â
Human communication and expression are well expressed by the movement of eyebrows. Think of Emilia Clarke (Daenerys from Game of Thrones) and the way she expresses mainly through her brows, and you will realize just how important your brows are.
Another feature of eyebrows is that, according to research conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), eyebrows are one of the most distinctive features of a person’s face, and they are how you identify a person.
All these reasons might explain why we, as humans, have evolved to lose most of our body hair but managed to retain our eyebrows and eyelashes.
How to Take Care of Your Eyebrows
Now that we’ve covered just how important eyebrows are, let’s go through some ways you can take care of this very important feature. Here is one routine you can incorporate to help make your eyebrows look flawless:
- Brush your brows every day to stimulate hair growth by blood circulation. Brushing them also makes them look neat.
- Maintain the thickness and bushiness of your brow by avoiding over-plucking. If you want a little grooming done, it’s better that you go to a salon to have it done professionally.
- Try out an eyebrow trimmer for more precision. Only remove the hair that has grown out of the desired shape and lines. This way, you can maintain the thickness of your brows while also shaping them out without going to the salon.
- Oils are your hair’s best friends! Massage your brows with olive oil, coconut oil, or castor oil every night. Then, comb through your brows with a spoolie. Try to do this every night to get the best results. Oil helps nourish and strengthen your hair, so it is great for thickening your eyebrows.Â
- You can also apply everyone’s favorite gel: aloe vera gel. Apply aloe vera gel to your brows to soothe away any irritation or redness after plucking or shaping them.
- Exfoliate! Yes, even your brows! Impurities can easily get trapped in your eyebrow hair, and build-up can cause acne or other skin problems. Use a gentle exfoliator or make your own using olive oil and some sugar. Do this at least twice weekly.
- Instead of applying your go-to brow gel, apply an eyebrow growth serum when doing your makeup.
Conclusion
In the end, eyebrows are not facial hair, even though they are hairs on your face. They don’t grow like facial hair, and they serve a different purpose.
Your eyebrows are a key feature of your face and help depict what you’re feeling and expressing. We doubt a beard would do that! Yet, people often neglect their eyebrows and care for either their beards or the hair on their heads.
Eyebrows, if not as important, are definitely essential to how we look and deserve a little more attention than what they get.
